Transcript: Cannes vs. Box Office: Film's Troubling Split Personality
Sales boom as theatrical slumps: What's happening?
Sean McNulty (00:04):
Welcome to the Ankler Podcast. This is Sean McNulty of the Wakeup Newsletter here at the Ankler here in New York City on Thursday, May 23rd. I'm joined by Elaine Low and Richard Rushfield in Los Angeles, a man whose voice has still not been cloned by an AI bot. Richard, what's wrong? Is Sam Altman not giving you a good enough offer or what's going on?
Richard Rushfield (00:24):
I'm holding out. AI has not advanced at a level that my voice is replicable by it yet, but I'm waiting. If I sound a little funny next week, it may not actually be me.
Sean McNulty (00:38):
We'll know you've been bought? Okay, got it.
Richard Rushfield (00:40):
I'm ready to pass the torch here, believe me. Our robot overlords can come and take me.
Sean McNulty (00:46):
But of course, before we get started, just a reminder, you can catch the Ankler crew over on LA's number one NPR station and Southern California Public Radio's flagship radio station that would be 89.3 LAist throughout the day every Thursday as part of their Entertainment Thursday programming during Morning Edition, AirTalk and All Things Considered. And you can reach us here at the podcast anytime via email at podcasts@theankler.com.
(01:09):
Well, we're recording here on Thursday, but Richard, you were at the heart of the conversation around town today. I just want to get a little more color here. Last night, Endeavor and TKO CEO, Ari Emanuel again proved that he knows how to play a room, which you were in, certainly something that the town is talking about. So set up what was going on last night? Where were you?
Richard Rushfield (01:28):
Well, so at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's annual banquet, which is a big stop on the banquet circuit, LA has lots of banquets honoring people who have supported various charities. And you come and you kind of ready for a long night, a long slow night, and eventually the honoree brought up, and will thank his children and make some stern words about how we have to stay vigilant about this cause and can't just give up. And then some homilies about work-life balance or something like that. You just sort of look at the program at the beginning and calculate like, "Okay, how am I going to stay awake for this? We got a long haul here."
(02:17):
So the last thing you'll expect is for news to actually occur at something like this, but that's because they don't usually honor Ari Emanuel. And he came to the podium and he made some comments about Israel and its right to defend itself and all that, which might've caused quarrels in other quarters, but the Simon Wiesenthal dinner was pretty unobjectionable and then launched into a full-scale attack on Bibi Netanyahu demanding that he step down and leave the prime ministership and said he's disgracing Judaism. And I think one of the terms that was met by boos and people walking out. I mean, I wouldn't say the majority of the room was booing, I would say there was a vocal fringe of it, but you don't usually see the honoree at a LA banquet being booed. I can't recall that ever happening in history before. But Ari Emmanuel, he easily could have taken that podium and thanked them for the awards and given some-
Sean McNulty (03:23):
Thank his family and walked off, right.
Richard Rushfield (03:24):
Given some homilies about work-life balance, and gone off into the night. And that is what almost any mogul in Hollywood would do. But the great thing about Ari Emanuel, love him or hate him, however you feel, is that it is never boring in the Ari show.
Sean McNulty (03:41):
Yeah, he's not afraid to speak his mind in that sense. And Elaine, we were at the Bloomberg conference back in the fall, and Ari also spoke about this back then too.
Elaine Low (03:49):
Made headlines there too. That's right.
Sean McNulty (03:50):
Yeah. Yeah. So certainly a-
Richard Rushfield (03:52):
Another place where people, they take the podium and try very hard to say nothing.
Sean McNulty (03:57):
Right. Exactly.
Richard Rushfield (03:57):
Make [inaudible 00:03:59] and-
Sean McNulty (03:59):
Yes, exactly. Make no foibles and yeah. Yeah, no, Ari's-